


More than enough

by padfootdreams



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Marauders Fest 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28790037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/padfootdreams/pseuds/padfootdreams
Summary: Written for the Marauders Fest 2020. Promt: After a full summer of not hearing anything from Sirius, the other three Marauders decide to break him free from 12 Grimmauld Place.Not beta read, sorry. English is not my native language.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7
Collections: Marauders Fest 2020





	More than enough

James hadn’t received a single letter from Sirius all summer, nor had Remus or Peter and they were now halfway into August. When the other three Marauders had left Sirius with his mother and brother on the Platform 9 ¾ in June they had been hopeful that this summer would be better than the last one. Surely, they hadn’t played quite as many pranks during their fourth year, compared to third year. Surely, Sirius hadn’t received quite as many Howlers as last year, and he had somehow continued to receive top grades, even in, as Sirius himself said “the more boring subjects”. James was, pardon the pun, seriously worried. 

At the end of term, he had urged his friend to use the two-way mirror to communicate during the summer. James had been gifted the pair of mirrors by his grandfather last Christmas, but Sirius had insisted his would be confiscated and had left it in their dormitory. The other Marauders didn’t know any details since Sirius clammed up as soon as someone asked about his time at Grimmauld place, but James suspected Sirius was harshly punished by his parents who didn’t tolerate any mistakes or disobedience from their heir without consequences. These consequences were evident in Sirius when he returned to the castle, if you knew what to look for. Stiffness from bruises covered by clothes. Hollow, pale cheeks due to weight loss and skittish behaviour which only wore off after several weeks back at Hogwarts. This was why James had called an emergency Marauder meeting at his house.

Remus looked more healthy than usual stepping out of the fireplace, smiling as he greeted James. He had a light sunburn after spending time in the garden and looked only slightly tired despite the Full Moon last week. Peter was happily chatting away about visiting his aunt in Hastings and going to the beach with his cousins. But they both quickly grew sober as they went up to James’s room where they were told about the reason for the invitation. James couldn’t sit still and was pacing in front of his bed. He paused when he noted Remus wouldn’t meet his eyes from where he sat on the Gryffindor-red bedcover, “Moony”, he began….

“If he gets hurt because of me, I don’t know how I would ever forgive myself.” Remus blurted out. James knew what his werewolf friend was referring to. During the last breakfast back at school, Sirius had been unusually talkative: _If I have to listen to my mother preaching about blood purity one more time, I think I will go mad. I know I should learn to keep my big mouth shut. But it is so, so very hard when she goes on and on about how only Purebloods have rights, not to mention the way she speaks about other magical species… He faltered, seemingly to angry to go on, and drew a deep breath: I hope you never have to listen to anything like that, Moony._

Sirius’s anger was never a good sign, James knew from experience. An angry Sirius Black tended to get impulsive and lash out without thinking, without regard for his own safety.

“ You can’t blame yourself for something that isn’t even your fault, Moony” James interrupted, frustrated with his friend who had a hard time not to blame himself for his lycanthropy even at the best of times.

'“ This isn’t about discussing what triggered this lack of letters, we have to do something about it”. James had probably sent ten letters and Remus and Peter at least as many without a single reply. James started pacing again. Peter was listening intently as James started to lay out a plan. “ I know how to get hold of Polyjuice Potion from my father’s workplace, they use it in research for developing new hair potions”.

James proceeded to tell his friends about how Regulus had decided to spend the last two weeks of the summer with Evan Rosier visiting their estate in Yorkshire. “If we wait until he has gone, we can Polyjuice ourself into them and sneak into Grimmauld place."

Remus sighed “ I know you won’t listen if I point out in how many ways that plan can go wrong, but I had to at least say it”.

* * *

“Would you please show us to my brother, Kreacher”, James says haughtily, drawing his travel cloak more closely over his shoulders to hide his slightly shaking hands. “Me, Evan and Peter need to talk to him about a small matter.”

“ Yes, Master” Kreacher said with a deep bow. This is hilarious, James thought. How can it be so very easy? We should have done this long before. 

Remus in the shape of Evan Rosier and Peter as Wilkes (Peter Wilkes , they really shared the same name), followed James and Kreacher as they went further down the corridor towards the kitchen and the door to the cellar.

“Exactly how long has my brother been down there”, James demanded, trying his best to keep his voice cool despite the horror sitting like a stone in his stomach.

“The last two days” as you well know, Young Master, which you pointed out to Mistress this morning asking for her to release him.”

James swallowed. “I expected him to get at least some hours respite”, he said cautiously. “I order you to unlock the door and then leave us.”

“Mistress is not here, she and Master is away for dinner at your uncle’s house.”

“Then you should know that I am the Master in my parents’ abscence”. He looked at his seemingly pureblood friends for reassurance.

Kreacher seemed to think about it for a couple of agonising seconds before doing as he was told. He waved his long-fingered hand over the thick wooden door, the lock clicked and the door swung up on its hinges with a squeaking sound.

“Now leave us” the false Regulus almost spat at him which made the old house elf quickly withdraw towards the kitchen.

“I’ll go first”, James more felt than heard Remus whisper in his ear, “my eyesight is the best in the dark. Of course, they should have brought a lantern from the kitchen of something since they shouldn’t draw attention to themselves by using magic. “I doubt we would get caught for a Lumos”, James whispered. “Sirius always goes on about how he and his brother can get away with using magic, because the protective charms on this house block the Trace effectively. Besides this place absolutely reeks of old magic, you must feel that, Moony?”

Remus Lupin nodded, he indeed felt it when he thought about it, the smell, no, the stench really, pressed against his werewolf senses, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling, the spellwork was old but above all dark, with a hint of a metallic, bloodlike scent mixed in. That made him want to hurry down the stairs.

“Lumos” he whispered, completely throwing caution to the wind. He could hear his two friends’ identical whispers behind him, but he was already running, running down the stairs.

He saw the bodies first, panicking and halting in his steps, causing James to nearly crash into his back. Remus froze, eyes fixed on the first of the bodies on the floor, for a second convinced that it was Sirius’s corpse laying there. Regulus Black’s grey eyes, identical to his brother’s were staring unseeing towards the ceiling, the wand light reflected in them made them appear like melted silver. A couple of feet further away was another three dark shapes spread across the floor, but the light couldn’t quite reach them. James resolutely stepped around Remus and shone his wand further into the cellar. Remus heard Peter gasp as the light fell upon... well, upon his own body lying there, he was lying face-down, his sand blond hair matted with blood, Remus could see a couple of new scars on the cheeks. He could see Peter’s and James’s lifeless bodies a couple of feet away. 

“This is weird.” Peters voice was shaking. “It’s only a boggart”, James whispered.

“ Or more likely, four of them”, Remus said. “Since they are unable to transform into two different shapes at once.” He remembered reading this in their Defence textbook last year before the lesson about boggarts. The thought calmed him, this was something they could handle. “If we each battle one of them…” he fell silent, hearing a quiet whimpering sound from the furthest corner of the cellar. James ventured closer, carefully stepping between the bodies on the stone floor.

“Reg, is that you…?“ Sirius voice was hoarse and it sounded like he’d cried. “You have to go away”, he pleaded.” What if they come back? Please Reg.“ Sirius was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. He fell silent, his mouth open in surprise as the Regulus he saw in front of him, drew the invisibility cloak from his pocket. “ Can you stand, Padfoot”?

Sirius looked relatively unharmed except from a few bruises on his face, Remus saw as he came closer, relief filling his entire being that his friend was safe. Although he didn’t like the desperate look in his eyes, it reminded him of clouds before a thunderstorm.

“ Not sure I can stand” Sirius mumbled “ Think I broke my leg when Kreacher threw me down the stairs, the damn elf didn’t bother to look. But Prongs, I suppose those aren’t Wilkes and Rosier?”

The Black heir seemed to shake off his previous mood as James hurried through an explanation.” Eh, excuse me, can’t we get rid of those, they are giving me the collywobbles”, Peter nervously nodded in direction of the corpses.

“Right” Remus said, having had some time to think about how to approach the Boggart problem, I suppose if I get them all to focus on me”. He gripped his wand tighter in his hand, suddenly faced by four floating shining orbs, the moonlight blinding him, almost searing… afraid but only for a second. No wait, it’s impossible, I won’t transform, we are inside he thought. “Riddiculus”, he incanted and sighed as he saw the full moons transform into bouncy balls that dropped to the floor and rolled harmlessly away. Sirius shoot Remus his usual lopsided smile as James helped him stand up and lean on his shoulder. “I already stopped believing in them yesterday”, Sirius said. ” There are only so many days you could die in… Unfortunately, I had no wand to make them disappear.” 

“Hush” Peter was standing on the lowermost steps of the stairs, listening anxiously, James gave the invisibility cloak to his Remus who quickly cast it over Sirius. James paused to wave his wand at one of the ale barrels, transfiguring it into a dark, humanoid shape which he sent into the corner with a flick of his wand. A moment later they could see Kreacher at the top of the stairs Regulus-James let go of Sirius and ascended the stairs to meet him and continue up through the doorway.“ Me and my brother have nothing more to say to each other...."

Remus groaned inwardly as he could hear his concealed friend slide to the floor as his fractured leg gave way and a stifled moan, he knew that house elves had good hearing, but exactly how good?

“Peter” he whispered frantically. “Help him… “ The smallest Marauder hurried to the spot where he guessed Sirius sat on the floor. But the injured boy seemed to have crawled towards Remus.

“Lend me your wand, Sirius voice said quietly right next to him, the pain barely evident in his voice. Remus heard a whispered “ Episkey” almost in the same moment he tossed his willow wand in the direction of his friend’s voice. His wand had always worked well for Sirius.

“ Not perfect”, Sirius muttered, “ but it should hold my weight now. Quickly now”. Peter and Remus hurried after their friend up the stairs. “We can use the kitchen fire for flooing if Prongs distracts Kreacher”.

They hastened into the kitchen and Peter shot a fire charm towards the pile of wood in the fireplace as Remus felt how Sirius pressed the wand back into his hand. “You go first”, Remus said and breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the whoosh of his friend disappearing, a small jar of Floo powder sitting within easy reach on the mantelpiece. Peter was next, disappearing after his own whisper of “Potter Manor”. What is James doing? Remus wondered, he hesitated before the fire place. 

“Alright Master Regulus” he heard through the kitchen doorway, “of course you must return with your friends”.

“ I imagine you have things to clean upstairs, Kreacher, for example polishing the dining room silver. Now get to it, chop, chop…”

The fake Regulus hurried through the doorway and Remus threw the floo powder into fire, one moment later tumbling out onto the Potters drawing room floor, closely followed by James who was talking quickly: “ I thought I would never get away as Regulus started to question me about the dinner with Aunt Druella last Sunday, which I of course had no idea about.”

Remus dried the sweat from his face with shaking hands, noticing the faint outline of scars on the fingers as a sign that the Polyjuice potion was wearing off. He could see Peter, now looking like himself once more, prompting Sirius to sit down on the Potters’ velvet sofa. The Black boy let out a small sigh when the weight was taken off his injured leg. James however was nowhere to be seen. A moment later he returned through the door with his mother in tow. “ Broken leg” he pressed out between almost closed lips. His face was frozen into a mask of anger which was mirrored on his mother’s face.

“Hello Mrs Potter” Sirius said, smiling slightly. “ Sorry to intrude like this”. 

“Say Effie, how many times do I have to tell you that” the gray-haired tall witch said kindly. “ I’m not angry with you, dear.” She turned to her son who was hovering behind her. “ Have you any idea in how many ways that plan could have gone wrong!” Remus winced at the shouting. James however seemed used to it. “ Eh, that was exactly what Remus said before, Mum. ”Euphemia Potter continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “What if Sirius’s parents come storming in here this minute?”

“Excuse me” Sirius voice was heard from the sofa, “but that would hardly be likely. Kreacher left me some water this morning and I doubt they will check on me for at least a couple of more days. My mother made that quite clear that she didn’t want to se my face before my return to Hogwarts in two weeks. And father is usually to busy at the Ministry to bother about me.”

Euphemia Potter sighed. As a retired healer she knew just how difficult, probably impossible, it would be to get Sirius out of the claws of his pureblood-fanatic parents, even if Sirius allowed her to try, which would never happen. Regrettably the wizarding world didn’t have child welfare laws like the muggles and it was legal for purebloods to punish their children with magic within certain bounds, and Euphemia knew her son’s friend would never formally admit anything more happened, insisting that would lead to more people getting hurt.

“ How did you break your leg, Sirius?" she asked softly as she cast a complete healing charm on the leg, healing the bone as well as pulled muscles and tendons.

“ Fell down the cellar stairs, how clumsy of me” came the flippant reply. Clumsy was the last word anyone would use to describe Sirius Black, Euphemia thought, but she let it go for now, offered to get them tea and toast and disappeared to the kitchen.

The Marauders gathered around Sirius on the sofa. Sirius was feeling grateful, the friends now had two whole weeks together before returning to school, he would get new memories, nice memories to replace the ones from earlier in the summer. It wasn’t perfect, but for now it was more than enough.


End file.
